Ashley Wool

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Ashley.WoolhomeNEWS:CONNECT:07.23.10Finally an update!Hey...so the site's gonna be going through some changes very soon. I've been doing some new work on my own music, and it looks like the new album is finally going to take flight for real this time. I'm also back with The Actor's Project NYC preparing for an Off-Broadway industry showcase this October...by the way, we're still casting this season, so check out the TAPNYC web site for audition dates and make sure to tell them I sent you. ;-)05.26.10New video posted!Check it out on the "Video" page. And be sure to check your schedule for next Wednesday night, June 2, when I'll be back at DTM.05.22.10SHOW DATE CORRECTION!My next showcase at Don't Tell Mama will be next TUESDAY, MAY 25th at 7pm, featuring the incomparable Seth Bisen-Hersh and friends. Come on down!05.07.10Fiddler on the RoofTomorrow is opening night for the Village Light Opera Group production of Fiddler on the Roof. I myself have a small ensemble part, but Fiddler is one of my all-time favorite musicals and I'm surrounded by some amazingly talented and devoted performers who have worked like crazy to bring this classic musical to life. Please check out vlog.org for more information!04.28.10SHOW PAGES FIXED!!!A lot has changed in the past two weeks, so please check the "Shows" page for the most current updates!I'm also working on getting the blog fixed up again. Just saying.ashley_ashley-wool.combioPicture this…It’s a mild Tuesday evening in June. A Broadway-themed open mic night is going on at the world-famous Don’t Tell Mama piano bar on Restaurant Row in Manhattan. Joe Regan, the in-house pianist, asks a female patron to sing “Part of Your World,” but she insists she is “not drunk enough,” so he asks if anyone else wants to sing it. His volunteer is a young woman who has just finished house-managing a show in the back room. She’s perfectly sober. She knows nobody in the room. But when she steps up to the mic and sings the classic Ashman/Menken piece, her voice floats out the open doors to the sidewalks of West 46th Street, and groups of people stop to listen, and eventually begin filtering in. By the time the three-minute song is over, the piano bar has more than twenty new patrons, drawn in by the voice of Ashley Wool.“I had these women come up to me and ask me when I was going to sing again, and what show I was in,” Ashley recalls. “They thought I was one of the club’s Broadway headliners, and I was just some random chick at an open-mic.”Perhaps she is a “random chick”—at least compared to the myriad stars who have performed at Don’t Tell Mama in the past (Raul Esparza, Sierra Boggess and Eden Espinosa to name a few). But if Ashley Wool isn’t a star…who is she?To start to answer this question, you could take a look around Ashley’s bedroom. Her walls are decked with posters from her high school, college and regional musicals, along with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Musical Theatre from SUNY Geneseo, where she was also a vocal soloist for a jazz ensemble, a member of the student-run Musical Theatre Club, and secretary of the school’s internationally-renowned Chamber Singers.The windows in Ashley’s room face east, and they fill the small 8x8 space with the glow of the early morning—her favorite time of day. Beneath one window is a cabinet stuffed full of the journals she has kept since the age of nine. There is the old Casio keyboard and Fisher Price tape recorder that Ashley used to record her very first original songs at the age of seven.There is a box containing the remaining copies of her first album of original music, Not Otherwise Specified, showcasing the then-18-year-old’s unique brand of raw, intelligent pop-rock that has since captured the attention of listeners across the world. Songs from this album have been featured on XM Radio and the top 5 on American Idol Underground, and she was a top 60 finalist in Rolling Stone Magazine’s “Best Bands on MySpace” contest.Some artifacts in Ashley’s room might seem puzzling—why, for instance, did she save that dried-up corsage, that staff-paper notebook of random doodles, or that box full of nonsensical notes passed between her best friends in middle school? Even if she told you, the significance might still escape you. But rest assured—everything has its place, and everything has a story to go with it.The same goes for her sophomore album, Right Now…But Not Yet, which places human nature’s countless contradictions in an engaging pop-rock context. To really know Ashley Wool, you need to hear the fierce rawness of “It’s All On You,” the poetic vulnerability of “Wake-Up Call,” the ironic mixture of bite and bounce in “Disposable (The Crayon Song),” and the candid worldliness of “Pay No Attention.” Powered by Ashley’s dynamically captivating voice, the album paints a landscape that is uniquely personal, yet entirely universal. Indeed, this can be said of everything she does; whether it’s music, theatre, or somewhere in between, Ashley is sending messages about being tough without being impermeable, being brave without being fearless, being an individual without trying too hard, and taking convention with a grain of salt. Come along for the ride.showsUPCOMING SHOWSOctober 2010The Actor's Project NYCOff-Broadway Industry ShowcasesNames and exact dates TBA!photos